Your
Community
Involvement Coordinator

Mailing List

The site is a 29.3-acre former industrial waste disposal facility located in Hamptonburgh, Orange County, New York. Between 1953 and 1967, lagoons at the site received approximately 50,000 gallons of waste water per day from the Nepera Chemical plant in Harriman, New York. Nepera made a variety of pharmaceutical and industrial chemicals. The six backfilled lagoons cover roughly five acres in total. State inspectors detected leaks from the lagoons in 1958 and 1960, and operations ended in December 1967. About 6500 people live within three miles of the site.

Subsurface soils contain a variety of contaminants, including semi-volatile and volatile organic compounds. People could potentially be harmed if they ingest or come into contact with contaminated soils or water. Ground water samples from nearby residential wells and three public supply wells have not revealed site-related contamination. Additionally, the site is fenced in order to limit the potential for exposure to site-related surface soil contamination.

This site is being addressed in two stages: immediate actions and a long-term remedial phase focusing on cleanup of the entire site. Immediate actions have included the filling of the lagoons in 1974, the construction of a fence limiting access to the site and the disposal of three drums found during an excavation in 1991. Ground water monitoring and soil sampling have been a primary component of the long-term remedial phase. EPA issued a final Remedial Investigation study in March 2006 and completed its Proposed Plan in July 2007.

In May 2011, EPA released a proposed plan to remove contaminated soil from the former lagoons at the site. EPA developed three options to address contaminated soil at the former lagoons and selected excavation and off-site disposal of the contaminated soil as its preferred alternative.